aaron stewart ahn, January 30, 2009 4:50:24 PM CET
Adriano Celentano - Prisencolinensinainciusol


Prog? What is this?? Apologies if repost but didn't find it in search.
         
this is from an italian tv show in the 70s so not technically a music video but clearly killer visuals and a sensational record

i think greg wilson did a mix last year which was 'big in ibiza'

they don't make em like this anymore...
         
It's actually a re-edit of two separate performances (duh).
         
yeah a great mashup, but i'm more interested in the how in the hell did a track from Italy in 73 that fuses disco funk and gibberish lyrical borderline rapping by a guy who acted in La Dolce Vita get buried for so long and just how in the hell did it happen and why were variety tv show performances back in the day cooler than most expensive over choreographed music videos? I mean was there stuff like this on Italian tv every week?
         
Not quite buried - It was remixed in 2006 as hass noted.

Variety shows have a ton, ton, ton of cool stuff that's just waiting to be pored over. Roman Coppola's Strokes video (e.g.) is just the tip of the iceberg in the 'variety show' category.

But yeah that whole Richard Lester thru David Bowie era (pre-MTV, I mean) is filled with good stuff that isn't just whistling Dixie.
         
ah, how ever to explain celentano...
sorry to disappoint, but i'm not much of an expert on the period, nor on the guy. he dubbed himself the idiot-king pretty early on, and embodies all kinds of contradictions, and does his best to expose those of others. so while this track is an ironical (bordering on sarcastic) commentary on the slavish adoration Italy had in the sixties and seventies of foreign pop (to the point that the biggest Italian hits were mere translations/interpretations of earlier British/American fare), he's always also been a major show-off/-master, best remembered for lunatic film projects like joan lui. my own impression of him is of a kind of disco pasolini. interestingly enough, he still manages to cause trouble whenever he takes the stage: the special evenings the state tv lets him do once a year inevitably attract the highest audience share and always end up in political scandal&polemic.
back in the day, italian state tv was at an azimuth of creativity, and adriano knew a good beat when he heard it (he doesn't do much music anymore).
         
awwwwesome. worth it for the beat alone!
are the lyrics total gibberish?
         
on variety shows: Don Cameron's Blur vid...
         
freakout. was literally just watching that vid.
always kind of amazed how blur managed to look simultaneously involved and uninvolved in their videos (universal, there's no other way, even parklife). bored and yet not bored. but that's another subject...
         
Aaron: I think a lot of the thrill of those early variety show performances was that they were often performed live on national television. That's something that just isn't done anymore, unless Conan wants to start doing stuff like that when he bumps Leno out. Not a bad idea, really. Like Concerts a emporter..
         
the lyrics = nonsense maccheronic anglophony.
         
The woman who stands up in the classroom is Celenatno's wife, btw.
         
wait, wait... so the black and white stuff was probably done live? i mean... uh. wow.
         
The woman who stands up in the classroom is Celentano's wife=Claudia Mori. (In the original clip he calls on "Barbara Streisand" just before.)
         
this was the first version i saw:

www.youtube.com

france and the uk would have a lot of these 'saturday night specials' which i found interminable as a kid but as an adult and with a more highly developed sense of kitsch you realise they are are tv gold.

i wonder if anyone would dare rummage through things like the 'black and white minstrel show' for inspiration?

i'm slightly amazed that so many people are posting on this one but its that good and what a record...
         
arctic monkeys did old grey whistle test, and i'm pretty sure someone else did another (b&w) uk show...
         
portishead.
         
Elvis' '68 comeback special has been done many, many times, by folks like Sugar Ray, Imani Coppola, Sum 41, KoRn, and Presidents of the USA